CHILDHOOD PSEUDOHYPACUSIS

Pseudohypacusis is a condition in which a hearing loss is exhibited in the absence of any organic disease. The mainstay of diagnosis is alac k of consistency in audiological testing. It is usually easier to diag nose in children than in adults, as children are less able to produce consistently erroneous results on repeated testing. In spite of this, the diagnosis is often missed in children, probably due to a lack of a wareness of the condition. We present the findings in ten children see n in the past year. Initially they had average pure tone thresholds of 51.3 db in the right ear and 51.4 db in the left ear. All of the chil dren underwent repeat pure tone audiometry and speech audiometry. In n ine cases the speech audiograms confirmed the diagnosis. In one child the speech audiogram was consistent with a mild hearing loss subsequen tly confirmed as a 30-40 db low frequency sensorineural hearing loss. Following a programme of close follow up and support, the pure tone th resholds returned to within normal limits in nine children and to a le vel consistent with the clinical impression in the child with a sensor ineural loss. None of the children required brain stem evoked response audiograms to confirm the diagnosis.